Shell leading industry forward with automation demonstration projects in Canada, Netherlands

摘要

AS THE INDUSTRY moves closer toward drilling automation, as exemplified by the work of industry groups such as IADC and SPE (see article on Page 24), there is one advantage to be enjoyed: We're not the first or second ones to do this. Many other industries have already achieved high levels of automation, which should help to convince skeptics that it's possible to adopt automation into the process of drilling oil & gas wells. However, if examples from other industries are not convincing enough, maybe the demonstration projects being run by Shell will do the trick. The operator successfully completed a trial in Canada last year of automated remote directional drilling. The run focused more on automating the downhole process, by installing a computer on the rig that hooks into the rig's control system.